Ever since county zoning was first put into place, it has included a "one principal structure per lot" rule, which is more or less standard for zoning resolutions anywhere.

"This is almost the first page of the zoning document," said Commissioner Linda Yockey, who is also a member of the Planning Commission.

The rule is intended to ensure that each home or business meets the proper road frontage and setback requirements. It is not new; it was widely discussed and debated when the county commission considered zoning throughout the 1990s, leading up to its final passage in 1998. However, in January several commissioners objected to what they had approved a decade earlier, saying that the rule is an undue burden on rural property owners who might want to allow friends or family members to build on their property.

As the rule stands now, a rural property owner who wanted to let a friend or relative build on the property would have to subdivide the property into individual lots. That would require a survey, and in some cases it might even require meeting expensive subdivision regulations.

Commissioner J.D. "Bo" Wilson complained Tuesday night that he had to file a subdivision plan just to give his son an acre to build on.

"I should never have had to do that," said Wilson.

The zoning document does include a clause making an exception for lots of 15 acres or more. A lot in the agricultural zone which is 15 or more acres can include two additional homes (not counting the main home) for use by family members or employees of the property owner. But those homes must be placed in such a way so that they could be divided into compliant lots if that were ever needed in the future.

Yockey said the one-lot rule is needed because otherwise, some property owners might try to take advantage of it to circumvent the rules.

"I've met a lot of folks that don't do right," said Yockey. She said the rules are intended to make sure that property can be properly subdivided down the road, when the current owners may be dead or have moved elsewhere. But Commissioner Roger Brothers said there's no way to know what the zoning regulations will be that far in the future.

Commissioner Bobby Vannatta questioned the 15-lot cutoff for the exception, saying that a 10-acre lot would be just as suitable for the exception as a 15-acre lot.

After commissioners complained about the one-acre-per-lot rule back in January, the issue was referred back to the Bedford County Planning Commission for study. Both the Planning Commission and the County Commission's rules and legislative committee recommended keeping the rule, and the 15-acre exception, as they now exist. That recommendation appeared on the commission's agenda.

Commissioners voted on whether or not to take the recommendation. The meaningless vote to keep the resolution as is failed to get the required 10-vote majority. It drew 8 votes in favor, 7 opposed and three abstentions.

County Attorney John T. Bobo later pointed out that the vote was meaningless -- because it was a vote on the status quo, if it had passed the resolution would remain unchanged, but when it failed the resolution still remained unchanged. The only way to alter the resolution would be to vote on specific proposed changes to it.

Brothers then voted to send the issue back to the planning commission for further study. He noted that two new members had just been appointed to the commission, and so perhaps that would change the outcome.

A few minutes earlier, commissioners had voted to confirm County Mayor Eugene Ray's appointments to the planning commission. Wayne Simons was reappointed for a new term, while Frank Nichols and Brent Stacy were newly appointed to the board, replacing Virgil Beasley and Phil Cooke.

In other discussion Tuesday, the commission approved a change in the zoning resolution designed to promote uniform front setbacks in subdivisions. The old rules meant that in some subdivisions, homes on odd-shaped corner lots would be much closer to or farther from the road than the homes next to them, leading to an unattractive appearance.